Thursday, July 20, 2017

VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS

Valerian (DeHaan) is obnoxious as he can be,
but I enjoyed the rest of the cast in the movie, the story, and the special
effects.I’m curious about why
Valerian is made to be heroic and still be so obtuse.Does this come from the comics on which it is based or from
Besson’s screenwriting?Valerian’s
fellow agent Laureline (DeLevigne) is sharp, emotionally attuned, and a real
fighter when she needs to be.The
film should have been named “Laureline Saves an Agent and a Planet.”Or at least “Valerian and Laureline”,
as the comics are titled.

At any rate, this very expensive indie film
must have invested large sums for the portrayal of exotic creatures, Olivier Bériot’s costumes, Hugues
Tissandier’s production design, and all the efforts and equipment involved in special effects;
an investment well worth it in my opinion.If the viewer just “goes with it” and suspends reality, it
is an otherworld experience with exotic creatures, harrowing light-speed
flights through space and falls to the depths of unknown places.My favorite creatures are the willowy,
iridescent Pearls, who are gentle, gentile, and smart enough to acquire
knowledge of science and mathematics, and anything else they need to know to
reconstruct their planet, which has been destroyed by an ignorant military
force.The pearls—ejected by
“converters”—are life sustaining for the people of Mül, and they treat them
respectfully.

Pearls in the film are metaphors for that which
is of value, like the earth and nature.“We give to the earth what the sea grants to us”, the Mül people say
about their recycling, as they deposit pearls into the water.In keeping with the film’s central
message, we find out what happened to the Mül planet, and the ignorance on
which the attack was based (e.g., “primitive” civilizations are not as
important as ours—a la the current day message, “America First”).

Valerian and Laureline are charged with finding
and recovering the universally coveted converter belonging to the people of
Mül, called the Pearls, which went missing when they were attacked. The
converter, which looks like an adorable animal, makes copies of anything it
ingests and ejects the copies in endless amounts.The Pearls give it pearls because they’re essential for
their survival.Others covet the
converter for their own nefarious purposes.The assignment to retrieve the converter takes the two
agents through numerous venues—other planets, U.S. military space stations, a
colorful “Big Market”, and even a fancy brothel.Their paths cross those of Commander Filitta (Owen) and
General Okto-Bar (Spruell), a Jabba the Hutt kind of character (Goodman), the
pimp Jolly (Hawke), and an exotic dancer Bubble (Rihanna).In the process of carrying out their
assignment, the two agents survive life-threatening situations, but eventually
uncover the mystery of what happened to the planet Mül.

Director Luc Besson (Nikita, Lucy, The Fifth Element) wrote the screenplay, based on a
French comics
series, and although he successfully attempted to recreate some of the Star Wars elements, the dialog lacks the
sharpness and creativity of the visuals.
Better editing could have omitted a number of scenes that are extraneous
and shorten a 2½
hour film. DeHaan is miscast as a
heroic character, and he comes across as braggadocios and self-centered. The rest of the cast are highly
entertaining, particularly Delevingne, Owen, Hawke, Goodman, and Debicki. Rihanna’s exotic, shape-shifting dance
and song act is a highlight.